TF Prime: GAMMA
by FearTheEngineer
Summary: Wheeljack and Arcee infiltrate the Decepticon ship, expecting to rescue a human, but instead they learn that Megatron is attempting to obtain a Cybertronian weapon of mass destruction - Project GAMMA - capable of killing an entire army.


I.  
_Beep. Beep._ Proximity alert! Ratchet looked up from the keyboard of his command central computer as Optimus Prime walked up. "What is it, Ratchet?" the Autobot leader asked his friend.  
"Hold on, Optimus, I'm just bringing up the screen now…" the medic answered, typing a few keystrokes on his console. A teal-tinted infrared projection popped up, displaying a feed of Wheeljack pounding on the steel plate that served as a door to the base. "Open up!" he was shouting. Ratchet sighed. "Oh, that reckless lunatic…! What could _he_ possibly want at a facility maintained by _reasonable_ Autobots?" Just as the medical officer stated his opinions, Wheeljack scaled the short distance up the outside rock face needed to stare directly into the security camera. "If you're not going to open this door, I have a few high-level explosives that'll do the job nicely…"

Optimus narrowed his optics. "You'd better let him in, Ratchet."  
Ratchet scoffed and muttered something about maniacs before entering a security code on his keyboard, activating the mechanism which opened the door with a loud pneumatic hiss. "About time! Thanks, guys," Wheeljack said into the security camera. Immediately he jumped off the rock face and darted through the door before it had opened fully, transforming into his vehicle mode and speeding down the hallway into the base.  
"Hey, is that 'Jackie?" bellowed Bulkhead, lumbering into the command center. Wheeljack raced up, the sound of his engine echoing throughout the base, and transformed. Bulkhead's optics glowed brighter. "Hey, 'Jackie! Where ya' been, and how much Decepticon tailpipe have you kicked?" The large green Autobot pounded his friend on the back. Ratchet crossed his arms over his chest and grumbled, "This had better be important…"

Wheeljack turned to address Optimus Prime. "Sir," he said, "I've been tracking the Decepticon ship – plotting azimuth, watching activity, looking for any indication of what Megatron's next reprehensible plan is and when it might take effect…"  
Optimus nodded. "A pragmatic use of time," he said. "I believe that you must have found something important, for you to arrive at our base with such… discourteous mannerisms."  
Wheeljack raised one arm and rubbed the back of his helm. "Yeah… Sorry about that, Prime. Had to get your guys' attention somehow… Figured the mention of explosives would do the trick. Anyway, last time I was tracking the D-con ship, I picked up a really weird distress signal… Thought you'd want to know about it."

Ratchet shook his head as though he were disappointed with an impertinent sparkling. "Wheeljack, did it occur to you that the Decepticons _knew_ you were following them, and are trying to trick you into going on a suicide 'rescue' mission?" the medical adviser said bitterly. He'd had just about enough of Wheeljack's antics. Apparently the feeling was mutual, as demonstrated by the Wrecker's response: "Yes – duh – I thought of that, Doc, but this signal wasn't even a Cybertronian frequency! Our communications are in the high end of the gamma spectrum; exahertz… This transmission was around 500 kilohertz. It's human technology." Ratchet groaned. "For the ten thousandth time… My name is not Doc!"

Optimus tilted his head in response. "This is curious indeed, Wheeljack… Thank you for coming forward with this information." "Hey, Optimus," Bulkhead spoke up. "If some human's on the 'Con ship sending messages, or they're usin' some kind a' human technology, someone'd better go figure out why." Wheeljack nodded. "Better find out what kind of human would be working for Megatron. Or what that overgrown retro-rat did to force one into working for him… Reconnaissance, probably a rescue mission. Bulk and me can go." Bulkhead jumped up and pumped his fist in the air, crashing back to the ground with a powerful BANG! "Now yer' talking, Jackie!"  
Ratchet glared at the ceiling, then at Bulkhead and Wheeljack. "Oh, give me a _break!_ You two are going to do reconnaissance?!" the medic yelled. "The big, green klutz and his friend the reckless pyromaniac? A Dinobot would be more stealthy than either of you, let alone both of you together!" Wheeljack grunted and crossed his arms over his chest. "That's reckless Wrecker to you, _Doc_," he began, "which is exactly the point. A reconnaissance mission inside Megatron's ship? You're going to need someone who's used to holding their own." Ratchet gritted his denta. "Someone who's used to solving a problem by causing two more! Optimus, you're not going to allow this, are you?"

"I believe that both arguments have merit," answered Optimus. "This mission will require the skill of an independent field worker _and_ a careful, grounded approach… Therefore, Arcee, I would like you to accompany Wheeljack on this assignment."

Wheeljack's optics widened. "Look, Prime, no disrespect, but I'd rather Bulkhead –" The Wrecker was promptly cut off by Arcee: "Optimus, please… If I have to infiltrate the Decepticon ship, I can't spend the entire time babysitting." "I was about to say the same thing," Wheeljack muttered quietly.  
Optimus simply watched them. "I expect you two to work together on this mission."  
Arcee sighed. "Very well, Optimus. Ratchet, get the coordinates from Wheeljack and open a ground bridge." "No need," Wheeljack spoke up. "We can take the Jackhammer. You coming, or what?" Without giving her a chance to answer, he transformed and sped off down the hallway leading out of the Autobot base. Arcee glanced over her shoulder at Prime as she was leaving, as if to say _Why do I have to put up with this?_ Then she transformed and took off after Wheeljack.

II.  
"Woo-hoo! Yeah!" shouted Wheeljack as the Jackhammer accelerated rather rapidly and at a steep incline. Arcee lurched backward, grabbing the sides of the seat. She glared at Wheeljack. "Is it even _possible_ for you to drive any more recklessly?" she said in a heated tone. Wheeljack grinned. "Let's find out." With that, he pulled up on the flight yoke and the Jackhammer did a somersault. As it came out of the loop and back into a level plane of elevation, the Wrecker adjusted the position of a slider switch on the control panel. The small ship put on a sudden burst of speed, accelerating to supersonic velocity with a jarring BOOM.  
"Was that necessary?" Arcee grumbled, her grip tight on the sides of the seat. Wheeljack shrugged. "It got the job done." "What is wrong with you, Wheeljack?" the femme said in response. "You won't spare one nano-klik to contemplate safety or teamwork… You act like a sparkling trying out a new upgrade for the first time!"

Wheeljack didn't look up from the controls as he retorted: "Wreckers don't contemplate safety because we're busy getting _results_, something that you and your 'great leader' Prime never seem to understand. And teamwork? It's overrated. There may be strength in numbers, but individuals become stronger by being forced to figure things out as they go instead of relying on the group to prop them up… But I'm not going to waste time arguing with you. We're almost there." He readjusted the slider switch on the control panel, and the Jackhammer slowed almost as abruptly as it had accelerated. An ominous black figure emerged into existence through the hazy wisps of clouds – the Decepticon ship. Wheeljack smirked at Arcee. "You ready to do this?"  
"How are we going to get on board the ship?" Arcee responded. "I don't see any way in, and I hardly expect Megatron's ship to be open to attack… Did you think of that before declining to use a ground bridge?"  
"Yeah, I thought of that in between my thoughts of what would happen if ol' Doc Grumpy ground bridged us right into a wall," Wheeljack countered. He maneuvered the Jackhammer to align the top parallel with the underside of the Decepticon ship, adjusted the speed until the two transports were moving seemingly as one unit, and closed the distance between them a bit more. The Wrecker then programmed the ship's autopilot program to hold its azimuth, elevation, and trajectory steady, and with the press of a button, he opened the rear doors. "Watch and learn, lackey!" he exclaimed, earning a frustrated glare from Arcee as he picked up a plasma cutter from a crate and walked toward the doors.

Being careful not to drop the plasma cutter, Wheeljack climbed onto the roof of the Jackhammer. Before he could overthink what he was doing, he jumped up and grabbed an extruded structural member on the bottom of the Decepticon ship, swinging his legs up and pressing his heel struts into the extrusion as well. While hanging upside-down from the underside of the craft, the solitary Autobot raised the plasma cutter with one hand and pressed it against the metal surface. He selected the high-heat setting. Sparks flew as a white-hot line maybe a millimeter thick appeared, scorching an opening in the material. Once he had carved a roughly square shape large enough for Arcee and himself to climb through, Wheeljack dropped the plasma cutter onto the roof of the Jackhammer and pushed the severed piece of metal up into Megatron's spacecraft. He slid it along the floor and swung his head and shoulders into the ship, looking around for an indication that they'd been spotted. No alarms blaring, no Decepticon guards in sight… but he was sure that somewhere in the command center, they'd gotten a warning about the breach in the hull. Sooner or later, they'd come looking. Well, the Wrecker would just have to use that to his advantage.

Wheeljack let go of the ship and allowed himself to drop back down onto the roof of the Jackhammer. He picked up his plasma cutter, then walked to the rear edge, knelt down, and swung himself back into the transport. "I made us an entrance," he said as he put away the plasma cutter. "Think you can climb up there and get in by yourself while I reprogram the Jackhammer's autopilot settings, or are you too weak from compiling data for Prime all these giga-cycles?" Arcee sighed and climbed onto the roof of the Jackhammer without bothering to retort. She figured it was more practical to prove her field skills to Wheeljack than spend the entire duration of the assignment arguing with him…

Wheeljack opened a command input display on his transport's control panel, changing its directive. He programmed the Jackhammer to maintain the same course for another couple of kliks, then land nearby. He grabbed a remote control from the console – which he could use later to direct the Jackhammer to his location – and put it in a storage panel inside his arm. Then he stood up and looked around for anything useful. After a brief micro-klik of consideration, he grabbed the plasma cutter and an extra grenade. Then he climbed out the back hatch, onto the roof, and up into the Decepticon ship.

Arcee was there waiting with an annoyed expression and her arms folded over her chest. "You cut a hole in Megatron's ship? That was your brilliant plan?" she said sarcastically. "Why didn't you just trail an enormous banner behind your transport that read 'Autobots here! Fire at will!'?" "Ya' know, the energy signature of a ground bridge isn't exactly stealthy either," Wheeljack retorted. He slid the slab of metal back into place, then dialed back the power on the plasma cutter and increased the beam width to weld it there. "Why don't you get out of here? The 'Cons will be coming down here to see what's goin' on soon."  
"And leave you unsupervised?" she muttered. The small-but-stealthy Autobot watched Wheeljack work, and tilted her head. "What are you doing?" Wheeljack grinned. "Just an old Wrecker trick…" He mounted the extra grenade to the wall next to the chunk of metal he'd made a temporary doorway out of. Then he took a piece of thin wire out of one of his storage compartments, attached one end to the activation mechanism, and the other end to a groove in the opposite wall. "A couple Decepticons'll come through here, looking for the damage to the ship," he explained to Arcee. "They trip this wire and… BOOM! Then _all_ the 'Cons come running, leaving wherever we need to infiltrate pretty much unguarded."  
Arcee considered the idea. "It's not very discreet, but it works," she said finally.  
"Glad you approve," answered Wheeljack. "Now, let's get moving before they get here!" The Wrecker took off running down the corridor, and Arcee followed close behind.

III.  
"Where do you think we are?" asked Arcee. They'd gone down a long hallway, turned right, through a door, found themselves in another hallway, turned left, gone through another door, walked down another long corridor… after that, both of the Autobots had lost track of how many walkways they'd taken and how many doors they'd entered. So far, they hadn't seen any Decepticons… Evidently, they weren't stationed abundantly on the lowest level of their ship. Now the two stood at another door, but this one was locked with a holographic keypad. Upon detection of motion, the panel projected a three-dimensional image of a cube with a different type of data on each side: Cybertronian letters, numbers, equations, phrases, algorithms, and some kind of encrypted Decepticon programming language. Presumably there were six different passwords, and Arcee didn't even know one of them.

Wheeljack narrowed his optics at the holographic cube. "I'd guess we're outside a storage area, and one that stores something pretty important if the 'Cons need a password this complicated for it!" he answered. Arcee nodded and said, "I have to agree." She tried to pry the holographic projector panel out of the wall, but it wouldn't budge. "Would you help me with this? Ratchet showed me a trick that should be able to override these passwords…" Wheeljack drew one of his swords and pressed the sharp edge into the wall just above the panel, using it as a lever to pry it out of the wall. The panel came loose and banged against the wall with a noisy CLANG, hanging by a large cable and some smaller wires.  
Arcee winced at the loud noise. "Be careful!" she hissed sternly. "Remember, we're trying _not_ to get caught." Wheeljack shrugged and put his sword away.

Arcee reached into the wall and disconnected a blue wire. With great care and precision, she pushed the end into an empty terminal. _Access codes accepted, Series 1,_ a computerized voice said in Cybertronian. The holographic cube began to spin. Six new keypads sprang from it, expanding to form a larger holographic cube around the spinning one. _Enter Series 2 access codes. You have twenty nano-kliks. Nineteen. Eighteen._ Arcee's optics widened. "Scrap!"

Arcee jammed the blue wire into the terminal again. _Seventeen._ Desperately, she tried another empty terminal. _Sixteen._ She disconnected a yellow wire and touched it to the blue wire, briefly creating a bright flash of light as the electricity arced. The computerized voice distorted momentarily. _Fi-i-i-fteen. Fourteen. Thirteen._ Arcee pressed the front of her helm against the wall, willing herself to ignore her surroundings and think faster. _Twelve. Eleven. Ten._ The femme twisted the yellow and blue wires together and pressed them into the first empty terminal she'd tried. _Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five._ Suddenly, the panel powered off and the doors slid open.

Arcee looked at the panel, startled. What had just happened? She hadn't done anything! Then her optics wandered toward the door, and she saw Wheeljack kneeling over an open maintenance access in the floor, holding two smoking cables. When Arcee's optics met his, the Wrecker grinned. "Whew! That was fun, huh? I love a good challenge!"  
Arcee shook her head. "Don't jinx us," she said. "What did you do?"  
"I wired up the power supply to the door's mechanics by hand," he said, holding out the cables for her to look at. "See, the way that panel's wired, it activates this mechanism here –" Wheeljack pointed to something in the floor. "—which connects the power supply to the hydraulic pump that opens the door. I just wired 'em together and bypassed the need for those codes."  
Arcee smiled. "I have to say, Wheeljack… That was really quite ingenious."  
"I'm glad ya' think so," Wheeljack replied. He tucked the cables back under the floor and slid the maintenance access into place. It disappeared almost completely once it had been returned, and Arcee wondered how in the pit Wheeljack had managed to find that under the duress of the situation. "Well," the Wrecker said as he stood up, "let's go find out what the Decepticons are storing." He walked through the doorway and turned around a corner. Arcee followed, looking back to make sure the doors weren't locking behind them.

"Okay… That's a lot of Insecticons!" Wheeljack stated the obvious. The storage area they'd found was full of Insecticons in stasis pods – hundreds, if not a thousand. Arcee shuddered. "Ugh… Good thing they're in stasis," she muttered, staring through the polymerized glass of a pod. The Insecticon inside had its side mandibles flared and its mouth wide open – not a pretty sight. Arcee looked away.

"What's that over there?" Wheeljack asked suddenly. Arcee couldn't tell what he was looking at, but she didn't have to, because the Wrecker ran toward it. Arcee sighed. "It better not be a trap you saw…" she grumbled to herself, sprinting to catch up to him.

When she reached Wheeljack, he was standing at a long metal table with a lot of dents. The table was stained with dried energon. Sitting on it were laser scalpels, plasma cutters, welders, and a large, vicious-looking reciprocating saw, also stained with dried energon. Wheeljack frowned. "This seems like a weird place to interrogate prisoners," he said. Arcee found a dusty data pad and turned it on. She gasped.  
"That a log of the interrogations?" Wheeljack asked. He walked a couple steps closer to her and leaned over her shoulder. Arcee shook her head. "It's a manifest of dictations by Shockwave," she said. "Apparently he was experimenting on these Insecticons." A video recorded on the data pad showed two Insecticons ripping the limbs off a Vehicon while Shockwave's voice talked in the background, explaining how he'd reconfigured the alloys for the Insecticons' wire musculature so that the temperatures generated by their control systems – which caused the wire actuators to bend to varying degrees – had become much more precise while keeping the Insecticons' brute strength. Apparently this allowed them to target specific weak points in a Cybertronian's anatomy with a great deal of force.

"Gotta' wonder why they're down here," Wheeljack said. "I'd have thought Megatron would want as many of these in the field as possible…" He shrugged and walked casually around the table, optics scanning the area for anything useful. Arcee put the data pad down. "They must have malfunctioned or been too unpredictable," she replied. Wheeljack stopped abruptly, and Arcee nearly crashed into him. "How long do ya' think _that's_ been there?" asked the Wrecker. He pointed to something on the floor a couple meters ahead. Arcee walked around him to see what he was looking at: a severed Cybertronian arm. It was so mangled that neither Wheeljack nor Arcee could tell whether it had belonged to an Autobot or a Decepticon. Arcee shook her head. "A while," she answered. "The energon is all dried. Whatever happened here didn't take place in the past few mega-cycles." Wheeljack didn't seem to be paying attention, as he was looking around the room again.

"We're clearly not in the right place," said Arcee. "There's no human technology in here. Let's keep moving."  
"The signal would've had to come from a communications console, which wouldn't be in the basement," Wheeljack agreed. "We've gotta' find a vertical conveyance unit and get to a higher level. We'll have better odds of finding something closer to the command center." With that, the Wrecker turned away and walked back through the maze of stasis pods, toward the door they'd come from.

IV.  
"Wheeljack, slow down. You're going to run right into a problem at the speed you're moving," Arcee insisted. She'd spent the past nano-cycle running after Wheeljack as he hurried from one corridor to the next, likely not paying attention to where he was going, and it was beginning to annoy her. While part of her admired the Wrecker's quick thinking, she was equally irritated by his lack of regard for any kind of tactical reasoning beyond 'I'll figure it out when I get to it.'

Wheeljack stopped abruptly. "No need... I already found it." He pointed straight ahead and sure enough, there was a vertical conveyance unit – a platform with an atmospheric ionizer mounted to the bottom, underneath a cutout in the ceiling. Inwardly, Arcee groaned. It was almost frustrating when Wheeljack's flagrant disregard for safety and strategy actually worked. She resisted the urge to say anything as she stepped onto the platform.

"What floor, ya' think? Ten?" asked Wheeljack, who had already found the control panel of the vertical conveyance unit. Arcee shrugged. "Let's try it," she answered. Wheeljack entered a command and the atmospheric ionizer fired up below them with an electronic hum. The metal they stood on produced a localized electromagnetic field, keeping the ions concentrated under the platform to generate heat and push the vertical conveyance unit up. The Autobots felt their pedes grow heavy from the magnetic force.

The vertical conveyance unit stopped rising at level ten, lessening the amount of power to the electromagnetic field so that only enough ions would be held to maintain the current position. Wheeljack stepped off the platform and looked around. "I don't see any Decepticons," he said. He did, however, notice an uninsulated metal wire running along the wall. "Interesting… This could lead to an antenna array." He was about to run off when Arcee grabbed his arm. "You're not going to go running around carelessly," she said sternly. "If there is a communications console that way, there are almost certainly going to be a lot of Decepticons." Wheeljack shook his arm loose. "Yeah, yeah," he said disrespectfully, walking forward at a pace that Arcee actually considered reasonable. She smiled. Thank Primus for small miracles.

Following the wire along the wall led the Autobots within sight of another door rather quickly. This one didn't appear to have any complex locking mechanism, but after running into the holographic tesseract lock in the basement, neither Arcee nor Wheeljack were about to rule anything out… The two crept along opposite sides of the corridor, carefully looking around the corners of a perpendicular hallway for Decepticons before running across and reaching the door. As it had seemed, this door wasn't locked. It whirred and slid open as Wheeljack approached it. He and Arcee stepped through the entryway… and found themselves surrounded by Vehicons!

Without a moment's hesitation, Wheeljack drew his swords and charged. He ducked as the closest Vehicon tried to shoot him, sliding along the ground and making a wide arc with one sword. The Vehicon fell on the floor in an offline heap, its legs detached from its body. Before it hit the ground, Wheeljack recovered to a kneeling position with one knee raised. He pushed off his back leg and off-lined another Vehicon with a quick jab of his other sword. Two more Vehicons charged him and Wheeljack spun around, getting behind one and swinging his sword from high to low, severing the cyber-neural connection from its processor to the rest of its body. The Wrecker shoved the incapacitated Vehicon at its counterpart, charging forward and running both of them through. Finding the area around him fully rid of enemies, Wheeljack re-sheathed his swords. "Come on, that was too easy!" he said to the now empty space in front of him. The Wrecker turned around to see if Arcee had saved any more Vehicons for him, and realized that this might not be so easy after all. Arcee was defending herself just fine, but as it turned out, the room they'd broken into indeed housed a communications console. A Vehicon was standing at the control center, presumably alerting the rest of the Decepticons to their presence. "Shoot the one at the computer! It's calling for reinforcements!" he shouted to Arcee. His left hand transformed into a blaster cannon and off-lined the Vehicon she was currently fighting with, hopefully freeing her to kill the one at the controls…

Arcee, meanwhile, used her slender form to her advantage. Two Vehicons came at her from opposite sides, weapons raised. Arcee looked back and forth between them. She noticed a tiny movement in the forearm of the Vehicon in front of her and immediately dropped to the ground and rolled. The Vehicon shot its doppelgänger just before Arcee plowed into its legs, knocking it on the ground. She jumped up immediately. In an instant her hands retracted and her blasters unfolded from her arms. She shot the downed Vehicon in the head and it went offline. Another came up behind Arcee and she jumped, spinning around in midair to get some extra power for her kick to its head. The Vehicon stumbled backward and Arcee gunned it down. She found herself face-to-face with another Vehicon, who tried to grab her, but she dodged sideways, about to shoot it when Wheeljack shot it for her... The Vehicon fell toward her, splattering her with its energon, but she didn't have time to worry about that… Arcee spun around and immediately fired toward the console. The Vehicon crumpled to the ground, offline.

_Beep. Beep. Beep._ A light on the computer flashed in time with the sound. "Well, that's probably not good," said Wheeljack. He walked over and typed a command sequence, allowing him to see what program function the processor was performing. "It's sending a signal to every computer on this ship, letting the 'Cons know where we are. We have to—" The Wrecker was cut off mid-sentence as an arc of electricity surged from the computer, traveling through the console and into his own control system. He collapsed with a heavy CLANG, unconscious.

"Wheeljack!" Arcee shouted. She rushed forward… and out from behind the computer console stepped Knockout, twirling his electric staff slowly in his fingers. Arcee jumped back abruptly, aiming her blaster at the Decepticon.

"I wouldn't…" said Knockout, smiling. He held the end of his staff over the back of Wheeljack's neck. "See, I've doubled the current that passes through these electrodes… Terminate me and you'll burn out his vital circuits." Arcee stood completely still. She couldn't bring herself to wish harm on any Autobot, let alone a horrific death like that… even when Wheeljack was being infuriatingly difficult to work with, the most she ever hoped for was that his plan – or lack thereof – would backfire and teach him a lesson without hurting him. The electrodes at the end of the staff crackled with energy. Arcee lowered her weapons. "What do you want, Knockout?"  
Knockout's optics followed the movement of Arcee's arms as she lowered her weapons. He smiled deviously. "Good choice," he said. "As for what I want… You'll just have to find out at the orientation, won't you?" The doors behind Arcee opened, and Vehicons marched into the room. One of them held up something that looked like a cylinder with a parabolic antenna attached to the end. Another Vehicon, holding some kind of remote control, pressed a button. Arcee became aware of her internal temperature rising. Then she blacked out.

V.  
Wheeljack's optics snapped online, and he found himself in a dark, sinister room. In the distance several meters in front of him, he could make out the outline of Soundwave working at a supercomputer. The Wrecker's hands were pinned behind his back. His body was suspended by his upper arms, making it nearly impossible to rotate his shoulder joints. A metal plate on the floor underneath him crackled with unrestrained energy, ready to destroy anything it came into contact with. "Hey, Tentacles, how 'bout you tell me what you're after, and I'll see if I can't blow it up before you get to it?!" Wheeljack shouted. Soundwave turned around and stared at him briefly, then went back to work as though nothing had happened. Wheeljack struggled against the restraints holding him captive until he almost bent the rotor in his right shoulder out of alignment. Evidently, brute force wasn't going to work in this situation… However, Wheeljack had a tendency to believe that doing something which wouldn't work was better than doing nothing at all, so he was still straining to escape when Knockout sauntered in. "Oh, give up, Autobot!" said the shiny red Decepticon rather dramatically. He leaned in close to Wheeljack's face. "You're a determined one. Unfortunately, that won't save you in this place." Knockout narrowed his optics and pressed his staff against Wheeljack's chest, sending a jolt of electricity through the Autobot. Wheeljack was completely unfazed. "If you're gonna' interrogate someone, it helps if you remember to ask a question first…" he grumbled.  
"Ah… Forgive me, I've made this too easy for you, Wrecker," hissed Knockout. "But no matter. I'll simply increase the voltage… like so." The medic adjusted a dial, barely visible near the center of the staff, and touched the electrodes to Wheeljack's chest once again. This time, the weapon burned his armor, making visible marks within nano-kliks. Sparks flew. Wheeljack's vision flickered with static as his processor struggled to maintain regulation of his control system. Still he refused to let himself react.

Finally, the device overheated, and Knockout exclaimed in surprise and dropped it. Smoke was coming off of Wheeljack's armor. He stared into Knockout's optics defiantly. "You call that a shock?" he said. "Clearly you haven't tortured many Wreckers before, have ya'?"  
Knockout growled at the ceiling in frustration. His right hand transformed into a wicked-looking drill, which he then held only centimeters from Wheeljack's optics. The Decepticon sneered. "If it were _my_ decision, I'd keep you captive in my laboratory for all eternity…" he said with a crafty expression. "You're a strong specimen. You'd last longer than most of them. But for some ludicrous reason, Lord Megatron wants you kept alive and undamaged!"

Knockout probably would have kept ranting, but the doors whirred open and a troop of Vehicons filed in, dragging Arcee's unconscious form by the arms. They dropped her face-down at the edge of the energized plate on the floor, then turned around and left. "Arcee!" shouted Wheeljack. "Get up and kick some Decepticon tailpipe!" Arcee did not respond.

Looking disdainfully at Arcee's chassis, Knockout narrowed his optics. He grinned mischievously. "I've formulated an idea that you'd be proud of, Wrecker…" The medical officer walked to a nearby table and picked up a length of cable. An untrained observer might have thought it was electrical wire. Knockout held it in front of Wheeljack's face. "Know what this is?" he asked slyly. Wheeljack, indeed, recognized it right away. The cable was detonation cord – a hollow plastic tube containing explosive powder, used to set off more powerful explosives. "What are you going to do?" asked the Wrecker. Knockout laughed maniacally. "I'm so glad you asked…" he replied before kneeling down and binding Arcee's hands behind her back with the detonation cord. The Decepticon stood and walked to a nearby table. He picked up a black metal box with two wires positioned parallel to each other on the lid. The box was just big enough that Knockout had to hold it with both hands as he set it on the floor near Arcee. "Do you see this, Wrecker? Are you paying attention?" the medic inquired as he carefully took the lid a few centimeters off the box. Inside, the two wires on the lid were connected to the positive and negative polarities of a Cybertronian battery, which in turn was wired to four bricks of explosive material. Wheeljack recognized it right away. The Cybertronian explosive compound was quite powerful and contained caustic chemicals… That amount would easily blast Arcee and himself to pieces, while also releasing a gas corrosive enough to eat through vital energon lines, yet dense enough to stay in the general area where it was released until it could be dispersed. Knockout stared into Wheeljack's optics, a malevolent expression displayed by his facial features. "Dreadwing made this especially for you, before he, ah… outlived his usefulness."

The medic wrapped the long end of the detonation cord around Wheeljack's abdominal plates and brought it back to the bomb on the floor. He stuck a piece of metal in the end and set the detonation cord on the metal box, laying the plastic of the cord on top of the first wire. Then he picked up the other end, stuck another piece of metal in it, and laid it on the box with the plastic touching the second wire. "Now, if either of you try to escape and you move these wires, the conductive bits on the ends complete the circuit to the detonator and you both die," said Knockout. "So I suggest holding very, very still!"

Arcee stirred. "Ugh… Wheeljack?" she grunted, raising her head to look at the Wrecker, who still had small wisps of smoke coming off him from Knockout's electric staff. "Don't move!" Wheeljack shouted abruptly. Knockout grinned. "I'd listen to him, if I were you."  
"What's going on?" asked Arcee. She looked around for anything familiar or useful.  
Knockout crouched down to stare into her optics. "I suppose you'll have to wait and see, won't you, sweetie?" he mocked. "I think you'll like it. I hope you're easier to impress than your Wrecker friend here." Knockout picked up his electric staff and lowered the voltage. Hopefully the stupid thing wouldn't overheat again, he thought as he poked Arcee in the arm. Surprised, she flinched. Wheeljack glared at her. "Hold still, unless you want to go boom!" he growled. Knockout laughed. He held the staff over Arcee's back and it crackled with electricity.

"Knockout! Stop that idiotic behavior at once!" A sinister, guttural voice came from the direction of the computers, and Megatron himself stepped into view. "Did I not tell you that we need an _intact_ Autobot for our little project, _not_ one that's been blown to smithereens?!"  
"Ah… yes, Lord Megatron," Knockout said hastily. Megatron nodded. "Then run along and find yourself something productive to do. Go ready your laboratory. Just stay out of my way!"  
Knockout gave a little bow. "Sir, if I may… Would it be permissible for me to disassemble this one while he was alive?" said the medic, gesturing to Wheeljack. "He's so much more enduring than most of my subjects… I think he'd actually enjoy it!"  
Wheeljack narrowed his optics. "That really the reason, glitch, or are ya' secretly afraid of off-lined bodies?" Knockout was about to retort, but Megatron cut him off. "Absolutely not! We aren't giving these two any chances to break free!" the Decepticon leader shouted. "We exterminate them here, while we have the advantage… Not let them find a way to escape and parade around the ship, doing damage and setting us back! Now get lost!" "Yes, Lord Megatron." Knockout turned on his heel and strutted out of the room.

Megatron watched his medical officer leave, then turned to face Wheeljack and Arcee. "Now… to business. I suppose you're here because you received a human distress signal," he said. "Courtesy of my… friend Kinnaird, who's not in any danger at all, at least for now!"  
The Decepticon leader walked to a storage compartment in the wall. He opened it and removed the weapon which had rendered Arcee unconscious earlier – the cylinder with a parabolic antenna attached to the end.  
"Recognize this?" asked Megatron, holding it out in front of the two Autobots. "Shockwave built it, using technology that Kinnaird supplied from the human military. Technology that's primeval by our standards, but… it'll serve its purpose."  
"What do you want?" Arcee snarled. "How did you get a human to work for you?"  
"Oh, please, it really wasn't that difficult! Humans are so stupid," Megatron remarked. "Kinnaird is a soldier for some human military organization called the Marine Corps. He provides me with the locations of military technologies – primitive, yet well above the standards of most technology on this archaic planet – so I can direct the Decepticons to steal them." The overlord paused in his explanation and walked in a circle around the captive Autobots slowly, as though he were examining them for defects. Then he resumed speaking: "As for what I want… Eons ago, the Decepticons built a machine called Project GAMMA. An ancient weapon of mass destruction that Soundwave has located, deep underground on Cybertron… It produces a concentration of gamma radiation so high, the energy burns out the Sparks of an entire army of Cybertronians… Imagine the destruction I could unleash with such a device!"

Arcee scoffed. "Stop with your delusions of grandeur and tell us why you lured us here," she said. It occurred to her that Wheeljack wasn't making any similar witty retorts, which seemed odd. She looked up and found him staring intently at something on Soundwave's computer console, but she couldn't figure out what…

"Delusions? Hardly!" Megatron continued bragging about his great plan. "But I did run into a problem. The concentration of gamma radiation in the chamber where the device is held… It's so high that even with the protective technology we've been able to cobble together, whoever goes down there is going to need immediate medical attention if they are to survive. And the only Decepticon who has the code-breaking skills to access that chamber is Soundwave, who's just not expendable…"  
"And that's why you wanted us," Wheeljack finished. "You need replacement parts for Soundwave the micro-klik he grabs your slaggin' doomsday gizmo." Megatron nodded, smiling evilly. "Very good," he said. "And what better way to get Cybertronian components than by killing a couple of Autobots who have been causing me trouble for eons?!"

The Decepticon overlord probably would have continued rambling, but at that moment, a video communique appeared on the computer and Knockout's virtual appearance stared into the room. "Pardon me, Lord Megatron… Shockwave requests that you and Soundwave report to the research bay on Level 12 immediately," he said. The communique clicked off.  
Megatron's optics gleamed brighter. "Well, well!" he said. "Shockwave must be making progress! Let's go see how far we've come." He turned and marched out of the room, and Soundwave crept along silently behind him.

VI.  
Arcee shifted slightly, trying to get into a better position to look around the room. "Don't move!" Wheeljack growled. "We're tied together with det cord… One of us moves that wire, and we both go up in flames." Arcee sighed and resigned herself to lying face-down on the floor. "You have a plan?" she asked. Wheeljack nodded. "I watched Knockout wire the detonator," he said. "The internal wires are short and they're not stuck to the explosives very good. If we knock the lid off the box without crossing the external wires…" "That sounds risky," Arcee replied. "Crazy, even."  
"It is risky," Wheeljack admitted, "but it'll definitely work if we're fast."

Before Arcee could let herself consider just how stupid this plan was, she started sliding her leg toward the bomb. The detonation cord jerked slightly. "Watch it!" said Wheeljack. Arcee cursed under her breath and focused on keeping her upper body still. She continued to slide her leg along the floor until it was a centimeter from the metal container. "Are you sure about this?" she asked. Wheeljack nodded. "Either it'll work and we don't need to worry, or it won't and there's no point worrying."  
"Thanks," Arcee said flatly. "That's very encouraging." She powered off her optics and kicked the lid off the bomb.

Arcee waited anxiously for one nano-klik… Two nano-kliks…  
"It worked!" Wheeljack yelled excitedly. Arcee powered her optics back on. Sure enough, the bomb was lying on its side on the floor with the detonator wires pulled a centimeter away from the explosives. The femme sighed with relief and went to work wiggling her arms free from the detonation cord.  
"Be careful you don't drop the det cord on this metal plate," said Wheeljack, looking down at the energized trap under him. It crackled and sparked as if in response. Arcee managed to pull one of her hands loose and began to work on untying the other. "I can't believe a human soldier would work for the Decepticons," she muttered as she worked. "Kinnaird… I'll have Optimus mention the name to Agent Fowler back at the base. Maybe they can stop him."  
"Well, I hate to say it, but Megatron was kinda' right," said Wheeljack. "There's a lot of good humans, but most of them are tricked way too easily."

Arcee freed her arm from the detonation cord and stood up.

"Hey, good work!" Wheeljack remarked. "Now, go pull that red lever on the computer console. I bet it deactivates the power supply to this plate." Arcee ran to the supercomputer and pulled the lever. The lighting above them dimmed. She slid the lever back to its original position. "Uh… try the yellow one," said Wheeljack. Arcee scoffed, but did as he said anyway. The crackling, arcing energy in the plate died out. So did the energy in the shackles that kept Wheeljack suspended, and he fell abruptly, making a loud CRASH as his pedes connected with the slab of metal. "Well… That was too easy!" he remarked. Arcee groaned. "Don't jinx us," she muttered. Then she noticed all the char and burn marks on his armor from Knockout's electric staff. "That doesn't look good."  
"Eh, I'm a Wrecker. I can handle a Decepticon electro-toad with a shocky-stick," Wheeljack answered. He leaned down and took the explosives out of the disabled bomb. "What are you _doing?_" Arcee asked disdainfully. Wheeljack grinned. "It was a present from Dreadwing! Would be rude to leave it here…" he replied. "Why don't you go see if you can dig any info about this gamma generator out of Soundwave's supercomputer over there while I keep watch?" Before she could have a chance to argue, Wheeljack walked toward the door.

Arcee shrugged and headed over to the computer. This supercomputer was much more complicated than the one in the Autobot base! It took her a micro-klik or two to figure out what all the buttons, switches, and levers did, but luckily, Arcee was a fast learner. She called up a search of ongoing projects titled _GAMMA_, and got a lot of results: The history of the weapon, how it had been constructed, where it was located now, the numerous cryptographic and mechanical locks that would have to be opened to access it… _Constructed by Decepticon engineers at the beginning of the War. Tested for the first time during the Battle of the Six Cities. Killed an entire army of Autobots, but did serious damage to the Decepticons operating it, so the device was stored in a difficult-to-reach underground chamber to serve as a last resort against the Autobots…_

Arcee stopped reading there and looked around for a data drive. It was vital that she get this information back to Prime… He'd know what to do with it. She cursed under her breath. This was Soundwave's supercomputer. Surely a being as anticipating as Soundwave would have a data drive somewhere near his computer! The slender Autobot walked over to the storage panels on the wall and opened a drawer. It contained a few different sizes of wire, neatly coiled and sorted. She opened another drawer and found medical tools. Arcee moved on to the third drawer in that column. This one was full of explosives. She closed it quickly before Wheeljack could see them. Six or seven drawers later, she finally lucked out and found a drawer full of computer parts, and all the way in the back of the drawer – sure enough – was a data drive. Arcee smiled. She carried the drive back to the supercomputer, plugged it in, and commenced the downloading of all of the data from Project GAMMA.

As the data copied, Arcee opened a communique and sent out a signal to the Autobot base. "Arcee calling Autobot Headquarters. Ratchet, come in," she said. The communique screen flickered with static and Ratchet's face appeared. Arcee smiled. "Ratchet… I sure am glad to see you!"  
"Working with that reckless fool Wheeljack, I can't blame you a bit," Ratchet answered. "Did you find the human in distress?" Arcee shook her head. "There was no human in distress," she said. "The human is a Marine named Kinnaird, who's been supplying Megatron with locations of military experiments. Megatron is going to use the technology to access a Cybertronian weapon of mass destruction called Project GAMMA…" Ratchet's optics widened. He stepped back from the video screen. "Project GAMMA… Oh, Primus…" The Autobot medic shook his head sadly. "So much destruction," he muttered.

Arcee and Ratchet were abruptly cut off in their conversation when Wheeljack turned away from the door and yelled, "I suggest we get out of here!" Arcee turned to face the communique once again. "Ratchet, open a ground bridge," she said, grabbing the data drive. Ratchet moved away from the video screen. A shimmering wormhole materialized next to Arcee just as the doors burst open and Vehicons – at least fifty of them – marched into the room. Arcee transformed her right hand into her blaster weapon, but there wasn't much for her to do… Wheeljack was holding his own just fine, and with the way he was jumping around, she probably would have shot him if she tried to help. "Wheeljack, come on!" she shouted, backing up toward the ground bridge. Just as Wheeljack was finishing off the rest of the Vehicons, a distant screeching pneumatic hiss filled the air, rapidly becoming closer until it was overwhelming. More Vehicons filed into the room, followed by an onslaught of Insecticons. "Get the data out of here!" Wheeljack shouted. Arcee hesitated, but she knew that Wheeljack excelled at getting out of tough situations. Getting the data to Prime was her top priority. She turned and ran through the ground bridge. An Insecticon tried to follow her, but Wheeljack shot it out of the air. "Doc, you'd better close the ground bridge unless ya' want half the 'Con army in your headquarters!" he shouted toward the computer. Ratchet didn't hesitate. The ground bridge disappeared, as did the communique.

VII.  
Wheeljack shot and shoved his way through the Insecticons, moving toward the supercomputer. So far he really wasn't finding it difficult, but he knew Insecticons… Their minds were all networked together so they could operate in sync without communicating. Fighting this many for too long would become a major problem. He had to find a better way… and he knew just what to do.

The Wrecker transformed into his vehicle mode and drove between the surprised Insecticons before they could react. With nothing left between him and the supercomputer, Wheeljack transformed back into robot mode and put the explosives he'd taken out of Dreadwing's bomb on the console. Then he plugged his remote control into the computer and transmitted a command to the Jackhammer. As he suspected, the dim-witted Insecticons had no idea what he was doing. They simply continued to screech, wiggle their mandibles, and lumber toward him. Wheeljack backed toward the wall, keeping close to the supercomputer as the Insecticons charged… Soon they were almost at the console. Wheeljack fired at the explosives. Then he turned and ran toward the door as fast as he could.

_KABOOM!_  
Insecticons screeched. Twisted pieces of metal rained down. Thick corrosive mist filled the air around the computer console, killing the nearest Insecticons and disorienting the rest. Wheeljack ran out the door and down the hallway, not stopping to admire his handiwork… He had to find the vertical conveyance unit and get back to the first floor, back where he'd come from. With Soundwave's supercomputer now destroyed, the ship would be on high alert. The entire Decepticon army would be coming after him soon.

Wheeljack turned so fast, he nearly crashed into the wall as he ran down another corridor. How far from the vertical conveyance unit had he been moved while he was unconscious? Was he even on the same level of the ship? There was no telling, but it didn't concern him. He would figure it out, as he always did.

After running down more corridors than he cared to count and changing direction until he wondered if he was actually running in circles, the Wrecker finally managed to find a vertical conveyance unit… complete with two Vehicons. He ducked down and rolled as they fired at him. He came up to one knee and drew a sword, then pushed off his back leg and impaled the nearest Vehicon. Immediately he spun his upper body toward the second Vehicon, pivoting on his front leg and using his hip actuators to add power to his strike as he slashed the sword. The Vehicon fell with a shower of sparks and energon, neatly cut in half. "That was too easy…" said Wheeljack as he put his sword away and jumped on the vertical conveyance unit. The Wrecker opened the control panel and directed it to go to the lowest level. The ion repulsor powered down, allowing the platform to fall while still generating enough lift to keep the fall controlled. It didn't take long to arrive at the first level of the ship, which echoed with the distant screech of Insecticons… Wheeljack jumped off the platform, ready to fight, but he didn't see anything coming. Apparently the Insecticons hadn't reached this corridor yet.

The Wrecker ran through a doorway, into another corridor, and turned right. He found what he was looking for – the hole he'd cut and re-sealed in the floor of the Decepticon ship, which had been blasted open once again by the trap he left behind. Wheeljack could make out remnants of the grenade and trip wire, as well as the charred remains of the unlucky Vehicons that had been sent on patrol. He ran toward it as the hissing screech of Insecticons echoed louder in the hallway.

Wheeljack crouched down on the floor and looked through the jagged makeshift exit. Sure enough, the Jackhammer was below, keeping pace with Megatron's ship. The Autobot stood and looked back down the corridor. Insecticons were stomping their way toward him, screeching and banging against the walls. "So long!" shouted Wheeljack. He jumped through the hole and landed on the roof of the Jackhammer. Before the Insecticons could catch up to him, the Wrecker ran to the back edge of the transport and swung himself down and inside. As he pulled the lever to close the hatch, the Jackhammer was jarred with a heavy THUNK! An Insecticon had jumped onto the roof, and the rest were quickly catching up. Wheeljack turned off the autopilot and sped up. He made a sharp left, throwing the Insecticon off the roof, but another grabbed on. More were surrounding him. They were scraping against the sides of the Jackhammer, buzzing and screeching… Wheeljack pulled up on the steering yoke and sent the Jackhammer flipping over in midair, trying to get rid of the pests, but more replaced them every time he shook one off. One of the Insecticons climbed onto the outside windshield and stared right into Wheeljack's face, twitching its mandibles. "Hello, Ugly!" the Wrecker shouted. The Insecticon ignored him and tried to pry the windshield off.  
Before he could react, two Insecticons tore a hole through the left side of the Jackhammer, severing the engine power supply line on that side in the process. Warnings beeped and flashed. The transport began to descend rapidly, spiraling out of control. The unrelenting Insecticons continued to peel the metal structure away, trying to force their heads and shoulders into the Jackhammer… Eventually, as it continued to spin, the Insecticons were thrown from the surface. Wheeljack struggled to bring his transport back into a controlled flight, but with the power to one of the engines cut, it was useless. The Jackhammer continued to spiral and accelerate until it plowed into the earth.

There was a deafening BOOM like an explosion as pieces of the frame snapped like twigs. Sheet metal creaked and groaned as it crumpled, and pieces of it went flying. Internal components had been knocked loose by the collision and were flying around, colliding with everything. Wires ripped out of the structure. When the Jackhammer was finally still, it was nothing more than a broken, twisted framework with pieces of metal crumpled like paper and sparking wires surrounding it.  
Wheeljack groaned and pushed a large piece of metal out of his way. He dragged himself out from under the remains, cursing in Cybertronian. The Wrecker wasn't in top form. A piece of the framework had impaled itself through his right shoulder joint, rendering that arm useless. Small pieces of his chest and abdominal armor had been ripped open, exposing wires and vulnerable internals to the jagged edges of the plating. His left knee was twisted out of alignment, and one of the actuators controlling his foot had broken off completely. Every time he moved, his body responded with an awful grinding sound. But that was nothing compared to the buzzing and screeching as hundreds of Insecticons flew toward him and landed, forming a circle around the area.

Holding onto the demolished framework of the Jackhammer, Wheeljack forced himself to stand. Energon dripped down his chassis and onto the ground. The circle of Insecticons went on as far as he could see, and they were all hissing and wiggling their mandibles in anticipation of the easy kill. They began stomping and crawling toward him. The Wrecker narrowed his optics and glared at them defiantly. "Well, well," he growled. "You finally ain't making this too easy for me!"


End file.
